I especially love a road trip alone, with no-one (little people) to interrupt my indulgent day dreaming.
The two road trips I most often find myself on are:
- down south, through the rolling dairy-farming hills of the NSW south coast; and
- through the lush sub-tropical climes of the NSW north coast, if I'm really lucky, up to the Northern Rivers.
These roads make me feel Australian. I don't just experience them, I feel at home on these roads. They remind me of my childhood but also give me such adult freedom, especially on clear sunny days with coastal waters sparkling in the east. I sing loudly and very well (! with no-one to hear me), and I'm also very skilled at drivers' seat dancing. Memories come and go, thoughts and tears flow.
My latest road trip was celebrated with a morning tea stop at the Berry Tea Shop, with a pot of masala chai and a slice of blueberry-four-nut tart served on a pink cake plate. I was surrounded by pretty cups and saucers and teapots.
On the next table sat 2 young men with 2 young ladies. All early-twenty somethings, eating flourless chocolate cake and drinking vanilla-bean tea. Really. Where on earth did they pop up from? I'm sure no young man I hung out with at their age (!) would have been found in here, on a Thursday morning, wearing closed shoes in November.
In other news, we recently experienced another island blackout. They happen every so often. I don't know why. This one lasted for 18 hours (and came while the Zimbabwean is still away on 10-day business trip) and I coped exceptionally well with it... resorting to cooking a large pot of bolognese sauce on the barbeque (God love the wok hot plate. I use it for boiling the kettle and cooking during blackouts), in the gorgeous summer sunshine, big hat and sunglasses to boot. Much nicer than being in the kitchen on a sunny day actually.
During the blackout, one of the kids turned on the hot tap in the upstairs bathroom. No power = no water pump = no water upstairs. Child left tap on (with no obvious reason to turn it off!). The power came back on around 1pm, just after we left home for the afternoon. We returned at 6 pm to discover the pump working overtime and a hot tap which had been running for 5 hours.
O the despair! (Just in case my despair requires an explanation: wasted water, wasted power, over-working an already pretty crappy water pump that just cost us $400) This tipped me over the edge. The kids know it's serious when Mama doesn't give a dramatic shouting performance, complete with arms flapping and objects flying through the air, but instead holds her head in her hands and cries.
O well. As my helpful neighbour pointed out: at least he didn't leave the plug in the sink. And it looks like it may rain this week.
My latest road trip was celebrated with a morning tea stop at the Berry Tea Shop, with a pot of masala chai and a slice of blueberry-four-nut tart served on a pink cake plate. I was surrounded by pretty cups and saucers and teapots.
On the next table sat 2 young men with 2 young ladies. All early-twenty somethings, eating flourless chocolate cake and drinking vanilla-bean tea. Really. Where on earth did they pop up from? I'm sure no young man I hung out with at their age (!) would have been found in here, on a Thursday morning, wearing closed shoes in November.
In other news, we recently experienced another island blackout. They happen every so often. I don't know why. This one lasted for 18 hours (and came while the Zimbabwean is still away on 10-day business trip) and I coped exceptionally well with it... resorting to cooking a large pot of bolognese sauce on the barbeque (God love the wok hot plate. I use it for boiling the kettle and cooking during blackouts), in the gorgeous summer sunshine, big hat and sunglasses to boot. Much nicer than being in the kitchen on a sunny day actually.
During the blackout, one of the kids turned on the hot tap in the upstairs bathroom. No power = no water pump = no water upstairs. Child left tap on (with no obvious reason to turn it off!). The power came back on around 1pm, just after we left home for the afternoon. We returned at 6 pm to discover the pump working overtime and a hot tap which had been running for 5 hours.
O the despair! (Just in case my despair requires an explanation: wasted water, wasted power, over-working an already pretty crappy water pump that just cost us $400) This tipped me over the edge. The kids know it's serious when Mama doesn't give a dramatic shouting performance, complete with arms flapping and objects flying through the air, but instead holds her head in her hands and cries.
O well. As my helpful neighbour pointed out: at least he didn't leave the plug in the sink. And it looks like it may rain this week.
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